Chapter 229: 233. Chapter 233: NiKo: You

233. Chapter 233: NiKo: You're Fucking Insane! (5200 words)

March 1, 2019, Friday.

Auspicious for: Consecration, betrothal, prayer, seeking offspring, victory!

4:00 PM local time in Katowice.

Spectators from all over the world who came to watch the Major in person were already seated, anticipating the start of the match.

Looking at the scene through the lens, the arena was bathed in blue light, and one could faintly see various CS: GO elements on the spectators in the stands.

For instance, on the far left of the stands sat a group dressed in black and white jerseys; they had bought their tickets early, intending to support that dark warrior team from their memories, but since G2 had been eliminated once again, they had instantly become the most neutral of spectators.

In the center of the arena, a spectator held up a large "EZ4ENCE" light board.

On the right side of the stands scanned by the camera, a group of people had the Danish four-pointed star painted on their faces.

The entire arena was filled with CS: GO elements, and with the bustling crowd, it made one look forward to the passionate scenes once the match officially began.

The blue lights in the arena dimmed further, and the giant screen began a 1-minute and 55-second countdown.

Everyone understood this was the countdown for a round in CS: GO, and many spectators smiled knowingly at this sight.

When the countdown ended, a soft piece of music slowly awakened everyone's emotions.

The voice of the English-language commentary appeared in everyone's ears.

"For nearly 20 years, CS has become the representative of esports games. CS: GO has brought together the figures of too many players: olofmeister, GeT_RiGhT, NBK, kennyS, FalleN, device, AdreN, Stewie2K..."

"Every player started as a basic player. The players and fans have helped CS: GO esports grow to this point; this is a Major that belongs to everyone."

As a community-driven game, CS itself was based on the creativity of players from Half-Life.

And the various early tournaments were also built up slowly through the passion of the players.

"Next, let us welcome the representative of the IEM Katowice Major championship trophy, a legendary figure in the CS world who once won the championship here and has returned to this familiar stage today. Let us give our warmest applause to our friend, pashabiceps!"

Listening to the broadcast echoing through the arena, pasha smiled and bumped fists with Xu Beifang, then, dressed simply, he carried the Katowice Major trophy and began walking toward the center of the arena.

He walked steadily under the blue lights. Listening to the cheers and shouts of the spectators, his professional career over the years flashed through his mind: the high spirits of winning the championship in Katowice in the early days, the dominance of ruling the world in the middle, the torment of internal team issues, and the satisfaction of his "last dance" in the later stages.

He held the trophy, which once bore his ID, high above his head, enjoying this final moment of joy.

He wanted his final stage appearance to be calm, but he still couldn't help but tear up.

He placed the trophy on the pedestal, and fireworks erupted nearby, illuminating the trophy until it shone brilliantly.

(The winners of each IEM Katowice leave their IDs on it, which is why Katowice has always been an extremely important tournament in the CS: GO world, even when it is not a Major, it remains the most important tournament outside of the Majors.)

For a moment, pasha had the thought of playing for a few more years.

But it was just a fleeting thought; in the end, reason overcame emotion.

He set down the trophy and began to return to the player tunnel, but in the end, he couldn't help but turn back for one last look.

"He stands there, his affectionate gaze looking over, his eyes full of the marks of his own youth." Wanjiqi, watching this scene, also felt complex emotions.

He was considered a player who got into the game relatively early. When he first started playing CS: GO, pasha was still a very outstanding young player.

"The hardest thing to keep in the human world is youth, like flowers falling from trees," Wanjiqi sighed. "He tried hard to maintain his fitness, hoping to extend his professional peak, but time is relentless in the end."

"Now, only Nice, his best disciple, can carry his expectations and continue to walk on the professional stage."

Just then, the voice of the English-language host came from the broadcast screen.

"The Major trophy has been delivered. The remaining eight teams in the Champions Stage are the strongest who fought their way out from CS: GO teams all over the world. Today's first match is Vitality versus FaZe."

"Let us welcome FaZe Clan!"

A group of big guys walked out from behind the huge screen on the scene, drawing waves of cheers from the audience.

After the members of FaZe Clan took their positions, the host's passionate voice sounded again.

"And next, let us welcome... Vitality!!!"

Amidst the impassioned music, Xu Beifang raised both hands—don't misunderstand, he wasn't doing a French military salute, just clapping his hands to interact simply with the audience.

Walking all the way to the front of the match room, under the peacock-blue night sky, he could faintly see the expectant faces of the audience.

"Let's go Vitality!!"

"Let's go Vitality!!"

A shout came from a spectator on the left side of the stands, igniting the immersed arena.

"FaZe Up!"

"FaZe Up!"

The FaZe fans were not to be outdone, also beginning to shout passionately.

Just then, a startling shout suddenly rang out from a corner: "Let's go G2!"

The sound waves that had been clashing instantly stopped, and then a burst of laughter erupted in the arena.

After the overwhelming cheers and shouts came, those excited emotions seemed to spread through the arena along with the sound. Even though it was early spring, Xu Beifang still felt the temperature in the arena rising. The gazes of the audience were like invisible tentacles brushing against his face, and the intense sound made his feet feel a slight vibration, which traveled through his legs and spread throughout his entire body, making him feel a tingling sensation.

Xu Beifang's teeth felt itchy, and his feet even felt a little floaty.

"What's wrong?" rpk noticed Xu Beifang's condition and took the initiative to ask. He was a bit worried that Xu Beifang would develop "Major syndrome" and perform poorly due to stage fright, which would be too suffocating.

"You can adjust your breathing. If you're still nervous later, just focus your attention on the screen."

Xu Beifang saw his concern and said, "I'm not nervous, I'm excited! I'm fired up!!"

Looking at the unbridled smile on his face, rpk was also infected, as if he had returned to his own youthful, reckless years.

"The twelve members standing on the field are among the best teams in the world, but there is only one Katowice trophy, and only one can enter the next stage of the competition!"

The host pointed the topic toward the left side of the arena: "Is it FaZe?!!"

He turned the microphone toward the right side again: "Or Vitality?!"

"Let us wait and see!!!"

Inside the Vitality match room.

"Guys, I'm feeling so excited, what should I do if I want to walk over and punch NiKo twice right now?" Xu Beifang said with a grin.

apex laughed, "If you run over and punch NiKo twice now, the rest of us will have to escape the arena early. Otherwise, you can call pasha over."

With pasha's physique, he should have no problem taking on two at once.

But letting these Vitality rookies engage in a real-life brawl with FaZe would likely just result in them getting beaten up.

After all, everyone on FaZe is a muscular gym-goer.

apex was also very excited today. The lack of live spectators before had actually made him very sad.

After all, as an older-generation player, his nickname used to be "Crazy Dog Breaker," and the important part was "Crazy Dog," not "Breaker."

Only by entering a live tournament would apex ignite his passion.

xtqzzz clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention.

"Months of hard work have brought us directly into the Major's top eight. Now, every step forward we take is expanding our team's history. We prepared quite a lot for this match, so there's no need to worry. Just play according to the tactics we studied."

"Let's put everything we envisioned into play, let's enjoy this moment, enjoy the cheers and applause of nearly ten thousand people, and let them shout the name Vitality!"

"Let's go guys, let's crush FaZe!!" The usually gentle bald coach used a rather special way to motivate them today.

Combined with the emotions and atmosphere of the scene, it was exceptionally effective!

"Let's go, let's go!!!"

After shouting in the room, they each went to their positions and began to enter the bot warm-up.

Zywoo, who usually doesn't like to practice shooting, was also quickly playing deathmatch today to get his state up.

The broadcast screen showed a comparison of data between Vitality and FaZe, and the viewers in the live stream were also expressing their opinions.

【How come Vitality has so many more kills than FaZe!】

【Nice and Zywoo are still ruthless, their ADRs are both above 80】

【FaZe only has olofmeister with a negative K/D, this feels very dangerous!】

【...】

Looking at the barrage of comments in the live stream, Wanjiqi explained, "Vitality has more kills because they fought their way up from the Challengers Stage and played more matches."

"However, looking at the stats, Nice is indeed playing better and better. His ADR is 87.2, which is 1 point higher than NiKo on the opposite side. Zywoo is close behind, also getting an ADR of 85.3. I can only say both of them are quite terrifying."

Wanjiqi had long known that FaZe's individual ability was strong.

Because FaZe has many star players, their individual ability is generally quite strong, but their kill ability is just prominent. Sometimes kills and victory cannot be equated, so their data is still a bit inflated.

Wanjiqi also understood that the viewers' worries were not unreasonable.

Vitality's apex has been in decent form recently, but the performance of the two veterans has always been a point of criticism.

"Okay, the data can only explain the state from before. Vitality's overall data is not good, but entering the Champions Stage 3-0 already explains some problems. Even if there are two old men in poor form, they have two 'god-tier' players there."

"So the outcome of this match still depends on how the veto goes."

"FaZe's ban, they removed Train directly. Even though they have a sniper like GuardiaN on the team, they are not proficient in this map."

Coming to Vitality's ban, they removed Forklift directly.

Besides Train, this map is their pain point and is something that absolutely cannot be released. "Coming to the first pick for both sides, FaZe directly chose Inferno as Map 1."

"Vitality, after consideration, chose Nuke???"

This map veto was quite surprising to Wanjiqi.

Vitality's recent Nuke was played against FURIA in the Challengers Stage, and it was a very narrow victory; they didn't look particularly strong on it.

"Chose Nuke??" NiKo was also quite surprised by this result.

"Feels like Vitality hid their tactics!" rain laughed on the side, "Didn't expect this Nuke to be picked suddenly."

Why does the map pool of top-tier CS: GO professionals change?

Many of them follow the strongest teams of the current version.

Because if there is a perennial winner on the top-tier circuit, they will definitely play frequently against other teams on their map pool.

These teams that want to improve have to frantically study their match recordings to figure out how to counter them.

In the current competitive scene, most of the map picks are still the "old three," and besides that, the only other frequent one is Train.

FaZe had studied Vitality's map pool. Although their own Nuke wasn't strong, they had watched the match recordings and found that Vitality was just "so-so," so they didn't pay much attention to it.

They thought today's match maps would still be among the "old three," but they were caught off guard by this, and the pressure was a bit high.

Coming to Vitality's second ban, they removed Dust II after consideration.

Leaving Overpass and Mirage for FaZe to choose from.

Although FaZe has olofmeister, the star player of the Overpass sticker, they are not proficient in Overpass, so they finally chose to ban Overpass, leaving Mirage.

The veto phase ended here.

Map 1: Inferno

Map 2: Nuke

Map 3: Mirage

Amidst the cheers and shouts of the audience, both sides began to enter the Inferno server and started the warm-up phase.

As soon as Xu Beifang entered Inferno, he saw NiKo requesting interaction on the public chat.

NiKo: So many people, so scared...

Nice: Want to give your ass a hard slap

rain:!!

They chatted a bit, but the last person was slow to enter the game.

apex asked in the public chat: "What's wrong with GuardiaN?"

NiKo: Equipment issues, as expected, this is a CS: GO tournament!

Xu Beifang saw that GuardiaN wouldn't be in for a while, gave NiKo a look of disdain, and then looked at his own skins on the main page.

He thought for a moment and put on a Redline he hadn't used in a long time, which had the gold stickers of his four former teammates on it.

He didn't have few cases in his inventory, he had occasionally opened cases on stream, and now there were quite a few keys in his account.

Xu Beifang suddenly recalled the aura he got yesterday—"Shaman of Liuzhou's Luck."

【Whether to use the consumable aura—"Shaman of Liuzhou's Luck"?】

"Yes!"

After the aura was activated, Xu Beifang began to constantly open the cases in his inventory.

Because of the equipment issues on GuardiaN's side, the viewers in the live stream were a bit resentful. Noticing Xu Beifang's actions, the director on the scene cleverly gave the camera to Xu Beifang to watch him open cases to pass the time for the audience.

The trolls in the live stream were also very happy to see this process, and one by one they started playing around in the barrage.

【Blue sky and white clouds】

【MP9, fits Vitality's name perfectly, not a loss!】

【Bizon has lots of bullets, can run and gun, huge profit!】

【SSG 08, can scope in, not a loss!】

Xu Beifang's actions naturally drew the attention of the FaZe members.

NiKo teased directly in the public chat: "Boss, don't be foolish, don't send money to Gabe!"

Xu Beifang was also a bit strange. He had been opening them for a long time, but they were all "blue sky and white clouds." He even doubted whether this consumable aura was real or fake.

Could it be that the investment was too small?

Then his eyes caught a "Counter-Strike Weapon Case" on the right, and he gritted his teeth and opened it.

You have to be ruthless to yourself!

This case cost over a hundred. Although he had achieved financial independence, it still hurt a bit.

Xu Beifang metaphysically rotated the weapon case left and right, then watched the opening screen appear.

The spectators on the scene also knew the price of this case, and one by one they started to boo.

When the red color passed, many people were laughing.

Items kept appearing in the field of vision, and the speed gradually slowed down.

Just then, the spectators were shocked to find that a purple-pink color appeared in the field of vision, which represented a Classified item!

"Woooo..."

The anticipation of the spectators gradually expanded. Along with the moment the "AK-47 Case Hardened" stopped at the pointer, the entire arena erupted with the most intense sound!

"Ohhhhhhhhh!!!!!!"

Everyone was stunned, venting their emotions excitedly at this moment.

【Lucky dog!!】

【WDNMD!!】

【This scene is too hyped】

【Case: The atmosphere is already here, can't not come out】

【Reported!! This is a gold drop at a Major scene】

【Katowice air raid warning, haha】

【The atmosphere is too good】

【Gabe is ecstatic, don't know how many people this will stimulate to open cases】

FaZe Clan on the other side of the stage suddenly heard the cheers of the audience and thought something had happened.

But they looked down at their screens.

Nice obtained: "AK-47 Case Hardened" from the "Counter-Strike Weapon Case"

NiKo:???

He looked at rain on the side, and the two looked at each other, both a bit stunned.

How can you open an AK-47 from this?

There are no gold items in the Counter-Strike Weapon Case; the best is a red-quality "AWP Lightning Strike," but to be able to open this at the scene of the Major quarterfinals is already very exaggerated!

rain typed in the public chat to ask: What pattern?

He quite likes playing with skins and also knows that the AK-47 Case Hardened is a bit special.

Because of the pattern issue, its price can reach around 200,000.

Xu Beifang heard rain's question and moved his mouse over.

【Holy crab!!】

【661!!!】

【Beifang, you're fucking insane!】

【I admit I'm jealous, Gabe must have changed the drop rate in the background!!】

【Did he steal Zywoo's gold fish! This is too perverted】

【Sure enough, it's the inheritance from pasha, the man who also opened gold in a live tournament back then】

【Sure enough, people from VP are different, so perverted!】

FaZe had just finished asking, and hearing a burst of cheers from the scene, they felt something was wrong.

Then they saw information on the public chat.

Nice: 661!

AK-47 Case Hardened, 661 is the top-tier pattern.

Last year abroad, one with four holographic Titan stickers sold for around 30,000 USD.

Nice's one, even without the four holographic Titan stickers, selling for 15,000 USD is no problem.

It's equivalent to saying that before the final even started, Nice had already won the prize money of an A-tier tournament.

FaZe members looked at each other, why does it feel like before the match even started, they had already lost?

NiKo: You're fucking insane! ===== CHAPTER 230 =====